^he  ^Mexican  dang 

AND 

cMexican  ^Headquarters 

BY 

FRANCIS  McCULLAGH 


REPRINTED  FROM 


1928 

PUBLISHED  BY 

^he  Sign  ^ress 

UNION  CITY,  NEW  JERSEY 


PUBLISHERS’  NOTE 

EROM  its  bureau  in  Mexico  City  The  World  of  New 
York  received  this  news  item: 

Mexico  City,  Jan.  25. — Much  excitement  was 
caused  here  today  by  a raid  on  the  Josedna  Convent 
in  the  heart  of  the  city.  The  police  arrested  twenty  nuns  and 
detained  a large  group  of  students. 

The  parents  of  the  students  Rocked  to  the  convent  to 
obtain  the  release  of  their  children,  and  a large  crowd  gathered 
around  the  convent  entrances. 

The  arrests  brought  the  total  number  of  Catholics  im- 
prisoned at  Police  Headquarters  to  more  than  100.  Scores 
of  Catholics  were  arrested  last  Sunday  for  attendance  at 
Masses.  A number  of  Catholic  women  have  been  arrested  for 
distributing  postcards  showing  the  recent  execution  of  Padre 
Miguel  [Father  Michael]  Projuarez. 

In  itself  the  above  story  doesn’t  seem  very  bad;  but  to 
learn  its  full  significance  read  this  pamphlet.  Francis  Mc- 
Cullagh  accurately  describes  Police  Headquarters  and  tells 
how  innocent  children,  pure  nuns,  decent  men  and  women 
are  huddled  together  with  the  harlots,  the  murderers,  the  very 
dregs  of  Mexico  City’s  underworld.  And  the  monstrous 
crime  for  which  these  children,  nuns,  decent  men  and  women 
are  arrested  is  their  assistance  at  the  Holy  Sacrifice  of  the 
Mass! 

Surely  it  is  about  time  that  American  Catholics  should 
make  their  voice  heard  in  strong  and  insistent  protest  against 
the  corrupt  gang  who  are  not  ruling  Mexico  but  destroying 
her;  who  are  robbing  millions  of  people  of  their  fundamental 
human  right;  who  are  consumed  with  an  insensate  hatred  of 
Almighty  God;  who  are  making  fair  faces  before  the  outside 
world,  while  their  hands  are  dripping  with  the  fat  of 
sacrilege! 

HAROLD  PURCELL,  C.P., 

Editor  of  The  Sign. 


(Single  copies  of  this  pamphlet  mailed  anywhere  post- 
free,  10  cents;  100  copies,  $5.00;  1,000  copies,  $35.00.) 


Copyrighted  1928  by  The  Sign,  Union  City,  N.  J. 


cS^bout  the  c^uthor 


Hrancis  McCullagh,  author  of  “The  Mexican 
Gang,”  and  “At  Mexican  Headquarters,”  scored  his 
first  great  beat  at  the  battle  of  Port  Arthur,  1903. 
He  was  on  a ship  that  slipped  out  of  the  bay  and 
gave  the  New  York  Herald  its  news  of  the  great  victory  of 
the  Japanese  over  the  Russians  three  days  before  the  rest  of 
the  world’s  correspondents  could  get  free  of  the  censorship 
of  both  sides. 

He  has  covered  every  war  and  every  great  event  in  the 
world  with  brilliant  success  since  then.  He  has  traveled  in 
nearly  every  part  of  the  world.  He  knows  many  of  the 
world’s  languages  and  most  of  the  history  of  its  nations. 

He  was  working  on  a Russian  newspaper  in  Moscow 
when  the  World  War  broke  out — but  that  interrupted  his 
journalistic  career.  He  was  too  busy  fighting  as  a captain 
in  the  Irish  Fusileers,  fighting  with  them  through  the  bloody 
shambles  of  Gallipoli — to  write  about  it. 

He  went  into  Siberia  with  a British  Mission  and  saved 
its  entire  personnel  by  his  own  knowledge  of  Russian  when 
the  Bolsheviks  smashed  the  white  Admiral  Koltchak  and 
his  British  supporters  in  1918!  It  led  to  one  of  McCul- 
lagh’s  greatest  exploits.  Disguising  himself  as  a Siberian 
peasant  he  penetrated  alone  to  Ekaterinburg  and  was  the  first 
non-Russian  to  reach  the  scene  of  the  death  of  the  Czar  and 
his  family  and  to  interview  their  executioner,  Yurosof.  His 
account  of  that  tragedy  again  startled  the  world.  By  it  all 
subsequent  tales  of  the  fate  of  the  royal  family  have  been 
judged. 

His  stories  from  Russia,  fearlessly  defying  the  Bolshevik 
censorship,  roused  the  world  to  save  the  lives  of  the  Russian 
clergymen  whom  the  Reds  were  juridically  murdering  in  the 
year  1921. 

McCullagh  has  always  been  an  independent,  the  last 
of  the  great  tribe  of  correspondents  such  as  Kipling  sang. 
He  was  last  heard  of  a year  ago  traveling  up  the  Amazon  by 
canoe,  crossing  the  Andes  and  starting  down  the  West  Coast 
to  Cape  Horn. 


2 


ABOUT  THE  AUTHOR 


Some  months  ago  he  returned  from  Mexico.  He  had 
scented  a story  there.  Quietly,  on  his  own,  speaking  perfect 
Spanish,  he  slipped  into  and  through  the  country  for  nearly 
a month  before  going  to  the  Capital.  Through  these  expe- 
rienced eyes,  in  the  light  of  this  ripe  and  utterly  fearless 
judgment,  a picture  of  Mexico  as  it  is  now  comes  to  the 
world. 

Francis  McCullagh  has  smashed  through  the  Mexican 
censorship. 

This  famous  correspondent  has  a story  that  may  change 
a whole  trend  of  history.  He  penetrated  Bolshevik  Russia 
on  his  own  during  the  height  of  the  Terror.  He  has  done 
the  same  in  Mexico.  He  has  seen  things  that  will  open  the 
eyes  of  the  United  States.  His  charges  are  backed  by  state- 
ments of  fact,  with  dates,  names  and  places. 


^he  SMexican  Sang 

Operating  ^nder  Galles  ^he  ^urk. 

IN  ONE  of  his  great  oratorical  outbursts,  President 
Wilson  said:  “There  is  one  thing  I have  got  a great 
enthusiasm  about,  I might  almost  say  a reckless  en- 
thusiasm, and  that  is  human  liberty.  ...  I want 
to  say  a word  about  Mexico.  ...  I hold  it  as  a fundamental 
principle,  and  so  do  you,  that  every  people  has  the  right  to 
determine  its  own  form  of  government;  and  until  this  recent 
revolution  in  Mexico,  until  the  end  of  the  Diaz  reign,  80 
per  cent  of  the  people  of  Mexico  never  had  a ‘look  in’  in 
determining  who  should  be  their  governors  or  what  their 
government  should  be.  Now,  / am  for  the  80  per  cent!” 

Events  have  proved  President  Wilson  to  have  been  all 
wrong  in  his  diagnosis  of  Mexico’s  illness,  for  as  a result  of 
his  spirited  attempts  to  give  every  peon  a vote,  nobody  in 
Mexico  has  a vote,  or,  if  he  has,  it  is  not  counted.  But  there 
can  be  no  denying  President  Wilson’s  honesty  or  his  enthusi- 
asm in  what  he  considered  to  be  the  cause  of  human  liberty 
or  the  vigor  with  which  he  acted.  Let  us  consider  for  a 
moment  how  he  did  act.  First  of  all,  he  absolutely  refused 
to  recognize  Victoriano  Huerta  as  President  of  Mexico. 
Next,  he  allowed  Carranza  and  Villa  and  all  the  other  insur- 
rectos  and  bandidos  who  were  hanging  around  the  American 
frontier  to  import  arms  from  Texas,  New  Mexico,  Arizona, 
California,  and  any  part  of  the  United  States  they  liked. 
Thirdly,  he  prevented  Huerta  from  importing  arms  from  the 
United  States,  and  when  the  poor  man  tried  to  import  them 
from  Germany  in  order  to  defend  himself  and  his  people 
against  the  brigands  who  were  sacking  churches  and  violating 
nuns  all  over  the  north  of  the  country,  he  sent  the  American 
Fleet  to  seize  those  arms  in  the  harbor  of  Vera  Cruz. 

The  result  was  that  President  Huerta  had  to  flee  the 
country,  leaving  it  to  the  edifying  gang  which  is  now  in 
power.  Now,  Huerta  was  not  a bad  man.  I shall  quote 
what  was  said  of  him  by  the  Ambassador  who  represented 
the  United  States  in  Mexico  at  the  time  of  his  accession  to 
power — Mr.  Henry  Lane  Wilson:  “He  was  a devout  Roman 

3 


4 


THE  MEXICAN  GANG 


Catholic,  a believer  in  the  Diaz  regime  and  policies,  and  with 
all  his  faults  I am  convinced  that  he  was  a sincere  patriot, 
and,  in  happier  times,  might  have  had  a career  honorable  to 
himself  and  useful  to  his  country.  He  fell  from  power,  the 
victim  of  narrow-visioned  American  diplomacy,  and  died  a 
sacrifice  to  the  same  overweening  jealousy  and  egoism  which, 
with  the  power  of  a great  people  behind  it,  had  brought 
about  his  downfall.” 

The  Ambassador  adds  that  “perhaps  no  other  Mexican 
Cabinet  has  contained  men  df  such  exceptional  ability  and 
high  character  as  did  the  Cabinet  of  General  Huerta.” 

CALLES  THE  EX-BARTENDER 

These  men,  I may  add,  were  Catholics,  highly  educated, 
capable  administrators,  infinitely  superior  in  every  way  to 
the  canaille  which  afterwards  came  into  power  as  a result  of 
President  Wilson’s  interference.  Calles  himself  is  of  half 
Asiatic,  half  Indian  descent.  I visited  his  native  town  of 
Guaymas  lately  and  found  that  he  was  known  there  as  el 
Turco  (the  Turk),  so  that  possibly  he  is  sprung  from  that 
very  race  which  massacred  the  Armenians  and  hated  the  Pope 
as  the  Devil  hates  holy  water.  He  was  a bartender  in 
Guaymas;  and  his  half-brother,  Arturo  Malvido  Elias,  now 
Mexican  Counsul  General  in  New  York  City,  was  owner  of 
the  bar.  The  place  was  heavily  insured,  and,  immediately 
afterwards,  burned  down. 

This  is  the  head  of  the  present  gang;  and  his  satellites 
are  worthy  of  him.  One  of  them,  Luis  de  Leon,  whom  he 
made  his  Secretary  for  Agriculture,  had  no  knowledge  of 
agriculture  or  of  any  animal  employed  in  agriculture  save 
the  bull,  for  he  had  been  a professional  bullfighter.  The 
Rev.  Moses  Saenz,  sub-secretary  of  the  Department  of  Edu- 
cation, is  a Methodist  minister,  despite  the  article  in  the  Con- 
stitution which  declares  that  a clergyman  is  not  competent  to 
hold  any  post  under  government. 

It  was  this  gentleman  who  recently  had  the  bad  taste 
to  hint,  at  the  Williamstown  Round  Table  Conference,  that 
Mexico  might  become  Protestant.  This  was  a sop  thrown  to 
the  American  people  in  order  that  they  might  continue  their 
support  of  Calles;  but,  as  a matter  of  fact,  Protestantism  has 
no  chance  of  succeeding  in  Mexico,  even  if  Catholicism  is 
uprooted,  for  el  Turco  and  his  friends  fear  it  much  more 


THE  MEXICAN  GANG 


5 


than  they  fear  Catholicism,  because  of  the  inevitable  “Ameri- 
canization” which  it  brings  with  it.  Senor  Moses  Saenz 
they  do  not  fear,  because  she  is  of  Jewish  origin,  and  really, 
has  no  religion  at  all.  His  brother  Aaron,  also  a Methodist, 
was  for  a long  time  head  of  the  Foreign  Office;  land  in  that 
capacity  he  had  to  deal  with  the  British  protests  in  connection 
with  the  attacks  on  Rosalie  Evans — attacks  which  culminated 
in  her  assassination.  These  protests  he  returned  to  the 
British  authorities  “because  their  tone  is  not  polite”;  and,  in 
the  letter  which  contained  this  phrase,  he  announced  that 
“the  Mexican  Government  does  not  recognize  the  diplomatic 
character  of  Mr.  Cummins  and  does  not  desire  to  hold  any 
sort  of  intercourse  with  him” — Mr.  Cummins  being  the 
British  Charge  d' Affaires  who  on  the  very  eve  of  this  Ameri- 
can lady’s  brutal  murder  had  protested  in  firm  but  gentle- 
manly language  against  the  criminal  negligence  of  the 
Mexican  authorities  in  her  regard.  I need  not  remind  the 
reader  that  England’s  answer  to  Aaron’s  letter  was  a com- 
plete severance  of  all  diplomatic  relations  between  the  two 
countries. 

CONTROLLING  THE  PRESS 

Aaron  Saenz’s  name,  as  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  also 
appears  at  the  foot  of  the  disgraceful  secret  telegram  pub- 
lished by  the  New  York  American  on  December  2,  1927, 
authorizing  Arturo  M.  Elias,  the  Mexican  President’s  half- 
brother  and  Mexican  Counsul-General  in  New  York  City, 
to  give  a bribe  of  $50,000  to  an  American  newspaper  syndi- 
cate to  counteract  newspaper  criticism  of  Calles  in  the  United 
States,  in  other  words  to  deny,  among  other  things,  that 
there  was  any  religious  persecution. 

“I  have  been  able,”  writes  Aaron  to  Arturo,  “to  con- 
vince the  Citizen  President  of  the  necessity  which  exists  of 
controlling  the  Press  in  an  effective  manner.” 

The  Press  he  alludes  to  is  the  greatest  Press  in  the  world, 
the  Press  of  the  United  States;  and  apparently  there  are  on 
that  Press  Judases  who  took  the  thirty  pieces  of  silver,  and 
then  denied  vociferously  the  truthful  accounts  which  were 
sent  out  of  Mexico  about  the  tortures  and  death  inflicted  on 
martyrs.  Could  baseness  go  further  than  this? 

Aaron  Saenz,  I might  add,  resigned  from  the  Foreign 
Office  some  time  ago  in  order  to  become  manager  of  Obre- 


6 


THE  MEXICAN  GANG 


gon's  election  campaign,  but,  as  the  two  rival  candidates  have 
been  eliminated,  it  is  to  be  presumed  that  Aaron  will  return 
to  the  Foreign  Office  and,  when  Obregon  takes  office,  next 
July,  Aaron  will  be  his  Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs. 


CRIMES  AGAINST  AMERICANS 

Serrano,  who  till  recently  belonged  to  the  gang  though 
he  afterwards  plotted  against  it  and  was  consequently  assas- 
sinated, had  started  his  life  as  a fiddler  in  a house  of  ill-fame, 
but  afterwards  joined  a circus  in  a humble  capacity,  and  by 
sheer  force  of  genius  raised  himself  to  the  position  of  chief 
clown.  General  Arnulfo  Gomez  began  life  as  a peddler. 

This  is  the  sort  of  gang  that  President  Wilson’s  “reck- 
less enthusiasm”  for  “human  liberty”  placed  in  power.  And 
very  little  gratitude  have  they  shown  to  him  or  to  President 
Coolidge,  or  to  the  American  people.  Let  us  see  the  shape 
this  gratitude  has  taken. 

From  sources,  whose  reliability  is  incontestable,  I have 
received  the  following  table  of  crimes  committed  against 
Americans  alone; 

546  murders  508  expropriations 

855  robberies  550  trespasses 

668  assaults  109  deportations 

106  kidnappings  55  expulsions 

847  property  seizures  6,487  arrests 

This  table  is  not  complete.  It  is  the  best  I have  been 
able  to  gather  from  authentic  sources.  But  I do  not  doubt 
that  the  American  State  Department  has  all  the  data  I have 
and  10  per  cent  more. 

Of  the  1,355  seizures  of  property  and  expropriations 
listed  above  the  State  Department  has  a partial  record. 
Commercial  Counsellor  Wythe  at  Mexico  City  recently  re- 
ported to  Washington  that  104  of  these  Americans  had  been 
divested  of  approximately  470,000  acres  without  compen- 
sation. 

Mr.  Wythe’s  investigation  covers  about  7 per  cent  of 
land  seizures.  If  his  figures  are  correct — and  doubtless  they 
are  as  far  as  they  go — American  citizens  have  been  robbed 
of  more  than  two  million  acres  of  land  which  they  bought 
and  paid  for,  and  for  which  the  Mexican  Government  has 
not  recompensed  them  to  the  extent  of  one  cent. 

The  American  public  has  been  led  to  believe  that  the 


THE  MEXICAN  GANG 


7 


Mexican  Government  has  been  cutting  up  vast  foreign  land 
holdings.  That  is  not  true.  The  victim  is  the  small  Ameri- 
can farmer,  not  the  great  landowner. 

CALLES  AS  AN  ANTI-AMERICAN 

This  is  bad  enough,  but  worse  is  to  follow.  Mexico 
owes  the  United  States  many  millions  of  dollars  for  re-pay- 
ment of  loans  and  for  payment  of  compensation.  Some 
driblets  are,  it  is  true,  being  squeezed  out  of  her  with  infinite 
difficulty  once  a year  by  Messrs.  J.  P.  Morgan  and  the  Inter- 
national Committee  of  Bankers,  but  she  — or,  to  be  more 
accurate.  President  Callcs — has  spent  millions  on  teaching 
Communism  to  the  Indians,  on  gifts  to  the  Bolsheviks  of 
Russia,  England,  and  China;  and  on  gratuities  to  corrupt 
American  journalists,  publicists,  propagandists,  preachers, 
and  politicians.  Only  a year  ago  Calles  squandered  over  a 
million  dollars  in  an  attempt  to  start  a revolution  in  Nica- 
ragua, so  as  to  establish  an  anti-American  Government  there. 
When  things  were  absolutely  quiet  in  Nicaragua,  Calles 
stirred  up  trouble  by  means  of  money,  arms  and  bandits. 
He  succeeded  in  forming  a rebel  force  which  he  called  the 
“Liberals”  and  the  “Constitutionalists,”  exactly  as  the  Car- 
ranzaists  called  themselves  “Liberals”  and  “Constitutional- 
ists.” In  the  latter  case.  President  Wilson  was  carried  off  his 
feet  by  the  very  name.  He  thought  it  represented  80  per 
cent  of  the  people,  whereas  it  did  not  represent  8 per  cent; 
and  dearly  has  Mexico  paid  for  his  mistake.  I now  notice 
with  satisfaction  that  the  American  newspapers,  when  speak- 
ing of  the  “Liberals”  and  the  “Constitutionalists”  of  Nica- 
ragua, use  inverted  commas;  but  I do  not  understand  why 
they  do  not  also  use  inverted  commas  when  speaking  of  the 
“Liberals”  and  the  “Constitutionalists”  of  Mexico,  who  are 
even  greater  fakes  than  their  namesakes  in  Nicaragua. 

Let  us  continue,  however,  our  investigations  into  the 
gratitude  of  Calles  towards  the  United  States.  Exactly  four 
years  ago,  his  colleague,  Obregon,  was  placed  in  a hopeless 
position  by  the  rebellion  of  Adolpho  de  la  Huerta,  but  Presi- 
dent Calles  saved  him  by  selling  to  him  a large  supply  of 
arms  and  ammunition — 15,000  Enfield  rifles,  five  million 
rounds  of  ammunition,  eleven  airplanes,  and  much  else  be- 
sides. A year  ago,  Calles  sent  most  of  these  arms  and  rounds 
of  ammunition  to  Nicaragua,  where  they  were  used  in  shoot- 


8 


THE  MEXICAN  GANG 


ing  down  American  marines  who  were  trying  to  keep  order, 
and  Nicaraguan  soldiers  who  were  friendly  to  the  United 
States. 

His  object  was  to  prevent  the  American  construction  of 
the  proposed  transcontinental  canal,  to  remove  Nicaragua 
altogether  from  the  American  sphere  of  influence,  and  to 
attach  it  as  a tail  to  the  Bolshevik  kite  being  flown  by 
Mexico.  To  prevent  the  Americans  from  ever  constructing 
that  canal,  he  offered  to  make  a treaty  with  Japan  for  the 
wholesale  introduction  into  the  district,  through  which  the 
canal  would  run,  of  Japanese  soldier-settlers. 

THE  EXODUS  FROM  MEXICO 

Even  now,  Mexicans  are  pouring  out  of  Mexico  into 
the  United  States  at  the  rate  of  five  thousand  a day,  and  their 
places  are  taken  by  Japanese  and  Chinese.  Thirty-three 
Japanese  families  landed  at  Manzanillo  while  I was  on  the 
West  Coast.  They  are  to  colonize  the  hacienda  of  Estran- 
zuela  in  Jalisco  and  other  haciendas  in  other  states.  Twenty- 
seven  Japanese  families  were  due  to  arrive  a few  days  later 
but  I do  not  know  how  many  have  come  since. 

In  some  places  there  are  more  Orientals  than  Mexicans. 
In  Mexicali,  for  example,  there  are  7,000  Chinese  to  only 
4,000  Mexicans. 

Nothing  is  clearer  than  the  fact  that  Calles  is  by  far 
the  worst  and  most  dangerous  enemy  the  United  States  has 
in  all  the  world  at  the  present  moment.  He  subsidizes  Bol- 
shevism because  he  knows  that  America  hates  it.  He  shows 
special  attention  to  the  Soviet  Embassy  because  Washington 
refuses  to  have  a Soviet  Embassy.  He  imports  Japanese 
because  America  excludes  them.  He  backs  Nicaraguan 
“Liberals”  because  they  hate  America.  He  has  subsidized  and 
encouraged  the  most  poisonous  anti-American  agitation 
throughout  all  Latin  America. 

I am  afraid  that  America  takes  too  much  interest  in 
Europe  and  too  little  interest  in  Latin  America,  which  is 
gradually  drifting  away  from  her  and  becoming  hostile,  yet 
Europe  is,  in  every  sense  of  the  word,  on  a different  hemi- 
sphere whereas  Latin  America  is  peculiarly  close.  During  a 
recent  tour  throughout  all  Central  and  South  America,  I 
was  astonished  at  the  hostility  manifested  to  the  United 
States.  I was  in  Buenos  Aires  a year  ago,  when  the  NIca- 


THE  MEXICAN  GANG 


9 


raguan  difficulty  was  acute;  and  was  astonished  at  the  success 
which  the  Callesta  propaganda  obtained  there.  Not  only  did 
the  Argentine  Communists  hold  public  demonstrations  to 
denounce  the  United  States;  but  learned  societies,  universities 
and  Conservative  newspapers  were  all  inveigled  into  anti- 
American  declarations.  By  able  letters  to  the  local  news- 
papers, the  Passionist  Fathers  in  Buenos  Aires  did  their  best 
to  put  the  matter  in  the  true  light;  but  what  could  they  do 
against  such  a storm  of  abuse? 

And  to  whom  does  America  owe  all  this?  To  Calles, 
the  pet  of  the  Ku  Klux  Klan,  the  idol  of  Mr.  Frederick  J. 
Libby. 

THE  CESSPOOL  OF  THE  NEW  WORLD 

As  the  Kremlin  has  become  a cesspool  for  all  the  evil  of 
the  Old  Word,  so  has  Chapultepec  Palace  become  a cesspool 
for  all  the  evil  of  the  New  World.  Calles  has  gathered  round 
him  there  a choice  collection  of  American  renegades  who  have 
left  their  country  for  their  country’s  good,  and  who  now 
spend  their  time  instructing  their  host  in  Uncle  Sam’s  weak 
points  so  that  the  old  maji  will  get  a knockout  blow  every 
time  there  is  a diplomatic  battle.  A typical  specimen  is 
Senor  Roberto  Habermann,  a Hungarian  Jew  who  emigrated 
to  this  country  and  took  out  naturalization  papers,  but  ran 
into  Mexico  as  soon  as  he  was  called  to  fight  in  the  Great 
War.  Honest  men  and  women  have  great  difficulty,  some- 
times, in  entering  this  country,  but  not  so  Senor  Roberto: 
he  was  in  Washington  and  New  York  and  all  over  the  United 
States  last  summer  on  a Mexican  diplomatic  passport,  doing 
all  the  harm  he  could;  and  he  is  frequently  an  honored  guest 
of  the  American  Federation  of  Labor. 

And,  speaking  of  the  A.  F.  of  L.,  I must  say  that  I am 
surprised  at  its  support  of  Calles,  whom  it  has  hailed  as  “a 
Labor  President,”  a ‘‘lover  of  liberty  and  humanity,”  and  a 
champion  of  the  Proletariat.  The  A.  F.  of  L.,  disapproves 
of  Russian  Bolshevism:  but  it  has  far  more  reason  to  disap- 
prove of  Mexican  Bolshevism  and  of  its  High  Priest,  who  is 
using  Labor  for  his  own  ends  and  is  certainly  no  true  friend 
of  Labor.  As  proof  of  this,  I need  only  point  to  the  fact 
that  Mexican  Labor  is  leaving  Mexico  at  the  rate  of  five 
thousand  a day.  Calles  has  constructed  for  them  what  he 


10 


THE  MEXICAN  GANG 


calls  a terrestrial  Paradise,  but  they  are  escaping  out  of  it  like 
men  escaping  from  a house  afire. 

As  for  the  Catholics  in  the  A.  F.  of  L.,  I must  put  down 
their  support  of  Calles  to  pure  ignorance  of  Mexican  condi- 
tions; and  I would  urge  them  most  earnestly  to  correct  that 
ignorance  by  due  investigation.  In  fact  I think  it  is  their 
bounden  duty  to  do  so,  for  the  influence  of  their  organization 
at  Washington  has  had  a great  deal  to  do  with  the  feebleness 
of  the  State  Department  in  dealing  with  Calles.  In  making 
this  investigation  they  should  not  go  to  people  who  are  on 
Calles’  payroll;  and  I am  sorry  to  say  that  quite  a large  num- 
ber of  American  journalists  and  authors  are  in  that  degrading 
position.  The  New  York  American  of  November  17th 
promised  to  publish  next  day  the  names  of  some  of  them,  but 
apparently  Mr.  William  Randolph  Hearst  was  scared  out  of 
his  life  or  else  moved  to  pity  by  the  mob  of  paid  journalists 
who  wired  him  and  visited  his  office  on  that  occasion,  for 
next  day  no  names  appeared. 

WHERE  THE  TRUTH  CAN  BE  FOUND 

* If  they  want  to  find  out  the  truth  about  Mexico,  let 
them  go  to  the  best  sources.  Let  them  ask  Mexican  workmen 
who  have  emigrated  to  this  country  in  millions,  so  that  they 
can  get  work,  and  send  their  children  to  a Christian  school, 
where  there  are  no  sex  lectures  as  there  are  in  the  godless 
Mexican  schools.  Let  them  question,  if  possible,  any  Ameri- 
can consul  or  diplomat  who  has  been  in  Mexico,  or  any  em- 
ployee of  any  American  Consulate  in  Mexico  or  of  the 
American  Embassy  in  Mexico  City.  I met  many  of  these 
gentlemen  myself,  and,  though  not  one  of  them  is  a Catholic, 
they  all  took  the  same  view  of  Calles  as  I take  in  this  article. 
And  it  was  the  same  in  the  time  of  President  Wilson.  Mr. 
Henry  Lane  Wilson  regarded  the  party  now  headed  by  Calles 
exactly  as  I regard  them;  and  the  same  can  be  said  of  Mr. 
Nelson  O’Shaughnessy  and  of  all  the  other  American  diplo- 
mats. But  President  Wilson  refused  to  be  guided  by  these 
Spanish-speaking  experts,  who  had  a thorough  knowledge 
of  Mexico,  but  preferred  to  take  the  advice  of  men  like 
Governor  John  Lind  who  did  not  know  Spanish  and  had 
never  been  in  Mexico. 

To  return  to  the  quotation  from  President  Wilson  with 
which  I started  this  article,  today  less  than  10  per  cent  of 


THE  MEXICAN  GANG 


11 


the  Mexican  people  support  Calles  in  his  Socialistic  and  anti- 
religious  policy,  yet  the  great  American  newspapers  and  the 
great  party  leaders  in  this  country  seem  to  take  the  matter 
very  quietly.  I have  just  traveled  down  the  Mexican  west 
coast  through  Sonora  and  Sinaloa,  and  across  to  Guadalajara: 
then  to  Mexico  City;  and  afterwards  north  through  Hidalgo, 
Potosi,  and  Neuvo  Leon  to  Laredo  and  Texas,  but  though  I 
mixed  with  all  sorts  of  people,  I never  once  met  a single 
Mexican  who  approved  of  Calles’  anti-Catholic  policy. 

MEXICO  A CATHOLIC  COUNTRY 

I found  Mexico  to  be,  in  fact,  a thoroughly  Catholic 
country,  quite  as  Catholic  as  Belgium  or  Bavaria;  more 
Catholic  than  Ireland  for  it  contains  no  Ulster  and  no  Belfast. 

If  there  were  any  strong  anti-Catholic  movement  in 
Mexico,  one  would  find  it  in  the  great  cities,  and  especially 
in  the  Federal  Capital;  but  the  Federal  Capital  is  as  Catholic 
as  Dublin,  and  Guadalajara,  another  great  city,  is  even  more 
Catholic  than  Dublin.  In  the  churches  of  Guadalajara,  Mass 
is  no  longer  said  owing  to  the  interdict,  but  the  Faithful  meet 
in  the  churches  for  praye^  no  less  than  five  times  a day.  And 
on  these  occasions  it  is  not  merely  the  intellectuals  who  make 
up  the  congregations:  the  majority  are  workmen  and  their 
wives  and  children.  I often  passed  hours  in  the  great 
cathedral,  and  the  continual  procession  of  worshippers  was 
one  of  the  most  edifying  sights  I have  ever  seen  in  my  life. 

Though  the  Blessed  Sacrament  is  not  there  and  the  lamp 
of  the  sanctuary  extinct,  candles  burn  on  the  high  altar  from 
five  in  the  morning  till  seven  in  the  evening;  and  in  front  of 
the  altar  rails  is  stationed  a guard  of  little  children  in  the 
white  robes  of  first  communicants. 

Now,  this  would  be  impossible  if  Calles  were  supported 
by  any  large  section  of  the  population;  even  if  he  were  sup- 
ported by  1 per  cent  of  the  people  of  Jalisco,  that  1 per  cent 
could  be  relied  upon  to  make  an  uproar  in  some  of  the 
churches;  but  no  disturbance  has  ever  taken  place. 

There  are  good  newspapers  in  Guadalajara;  and  they 
have  always  been  extremely  Catholic.  At  the  time  of  my 
visit,  the  censorship  weighed  heavily  on  them,  and  prevented 
them  from  publishing  any  Catholic  news.  Calles  had  conse- 
quently to  import  from  Europe  a Socialist  and  anti-clerical 
ruffian  called  D.  A.  Siquerios,  who  had  committed  a murder 


12 


THE  MEXICAN  GANG 


in  his  native  city  of  Barcelona,  from  which  he  had  conse- 
quently to  flee.  Siquerios  now  edits  a virulently  anti-religious 
rag  called  El  130,  that  being  the  article  in  the  Queretaro 
Constitution  which  has  led  to  the  present  persecution. 

This  paper  is  not  only  anti-religious;  it  is  also  anti- 
American;  and,  to  crown  all,  it  is  indecent.  President  Calks 
supports  it,  otherwise  it  could  not  exist,  for  it  has  been  unable 
to  get  a single  advertisement  from  the  good  business  people 
of  Guadalajara,  and  I doubt  very  much  if  it  has  a single 
genuine  subscriber  on  its  lists. 

AMERICAN  DIPLOMATS’  VIEW 

I happen  to  know  that  copies  of  that  paper  have  been 
sent  to  the  State  Department  at  Washington,  with  all  the 
virulently  anti-American  onslaughts  underlined  and  that  the 
State  Department  knows  that  90  per  cent  of  the  population 
of  Jalisco  are  opposed  to  Calks'  anti-religious  policy.  The 
diplomatic  and  consular  experts  whom  America  keeps  on  the 
spot  are  to  a man  opposed  to  this  anti-religious  policy  and  in 
favor  of  the  90  per  cent.  I speak  not  only  of  Guadalajara 
but  of  Sonora,  Sinaloa,  Hidalgo,  the  Federal  District,  and 
every  other  part  of  Mexico  which  I visited.  As  I have  already 
pointed  out,  all  the  American  consuls  and  diplomatists  whom 
I met  in  Mexico  took  the  same  view  as  I do  and  as  The  SIGN 
does  of  the  persecution  which  Calks  has  let  loose,  though  not 
a single  one  of  them  is  a Catholic. 

In  Mexico  City  there  is  the  same  edifying  attendance  at 
the  churches.  An  additional  proof  of  the  Catholicity  of  the 
people  was  afforded  on  November  24th,  when  Father  Miguel 
Augustin  Projuarez  was  buried,  after  having  been  shot  on 
the  charge  of  being  connected  with  the  attempt  to  assassinate 
General  Alvaro  Obregon.  On  that  occasion,  according  to  the 
wires  from  Mexico  City,  over  20,000  people  assembled  in  the 
cemetery  and  along  the  route  of  the  funeral  procession  in 
order  to  pay  their  last  respects  to  the  corpse;  and  in  all  that 
great  multitude  there  was  not  found  even  a single  man  to 
cheer  for  Calks. 

Where,  then,  is  the  80  per  cent  which  supports  Calks? 
I repeat  that  not  10  per  cent  supports  him.  This  would 
have  been  made  evident  at  the  coming  Presidential  elections, 
if  those  elections  had  been  allowed  to  take  their  course;  but 
Calks  saw  such  a drift  of  public  opinion  against  his  colleague 


THE  MEXICAN  GANG 


13 


Obregon  that  he  had  the  other  two  candidates  eliminated. 
Serrano  he  had  assassinated;  Gomez  he  outlawed;  and  now 
Gomez,  too,  is  dead.  There  is  at  present  no  candidate  for 
the  Presidency  save  one.  General  Obregon,  whose  candidature 
is  unconstitutional,  owing  to  that  article  in  the  Queretaro 
Constitution  which  prohibits  re-election.  But  Obregon  and 
Calks  have  concluded  a pact  whereby  they  are  to  succeed  one 
another  in  the  Presidency  until  one  dies  or  is  assassinated,  in 
which  case  the  Bolshevik  Morones  will  take  the  vacant  place. 

RUSSIA  AND  MEXICO  COMPARED 

In  other  words,  the  votes  of  the  peons  are  not  even 
counted;  and  there  is  no  constitutional  government  in 
Mexico.  The  present  regime  in  that  country  resembles  very 
closely  the  regime  in  Russia.  Calks  is  the  Mexican  Stalin; 
Roberto  Cruz  is  the  Mexican  Dzerzhinsky;  the  Crom  and 
the  Agraristas  are  the  Bolshevik  Party  which  upholds  the 
Government;  in  both  countries  the  army  is  the  blind  instru- 
ment of  the  Dictator;  and  in  both  cases  there  is  not  a single 
vestige  of  constitutional  government. 

Nevertheless,  Mexico  is  a Catholic  country.  I realized 
this  keenly  as  I sat  one  day  several  months  ago  on  the  shores 
of  the  marvelous  Bay  of  Mazatlan  in  Sinaloa,  with  the 
Pacific  Ocean  in  front,  and  with  the  shore  on  either  side 
broken  into  lofty,  sharp-pointed  pinnacles  of  rock.  On  the 
inaccessible  summit  of  one  of  those  pinnacles.  Mount  Talpita 
it  is  called,  stands  a cross  planted  by  Alvarado  the  Conquista- 
dor. Those  old  warriors  sometimes  erected  crosses  on  sum- 
mits so  inaccessible,  on  rocky  islets  so  unapproachable,  that 
the  degenerates  who  rule  Mexico  today  lack  the  nerve  to 
reach  them  in  order  to  tear  them  down:  they  confine  them- 
selves to  abusing  the  cross  in  the  taverns  of  the  Capital. 

But  meanwhile  the  cross  still  stands  triumphant  on 
headland  and  on  mountain  peak,  on  pyramid  and  teocallis 
and  temple  of  the  Sun.  In  Cholulu,  a sacred  city  of  ancient 
Mexico,  the  Aztecs  erected  a great  pyramid  to  the  god 
Quetzalcoatl.  The  conquistadores  allowed  that  pyramid  to 
stand,  but  they  planted  on  top  of  it  not  only  a cross  but  a 
whole  church,  the  superb  church  of  Nuestra  Senora  de  los 
Remedios. 

Catholicity  has  entered  the  marrow  of  Mexico’s  bones. 
One  can  see  that  while  traveling  through  the  country,  while 


14 


THE  MEXICAN  GANG 


walking  the  streets  of  any  Mexican  city.  The  names  of  the 
Divinity,  of  our  Lord,  of  His  Blessed  Mother,  of  His  Saints 
and  of  other  great  Catholics  cover  the  whole  map  of  the 
country.  I need  only  mention  such  names  as  Nombre  de 
Dios,  la  Sierre  Madre  Occidentale,  la  Sierra  Madre  Orientale, 
Los  Tres  Marias,  Santa  Maria,  San  Jose,  Vera  Cruz. 

If  one  stands  at  any  street  corner  in  Mexico  City  and 
reads  aloud  the  names  on  the  trolley  cars  that  pass,  he  feels  as 
if  he  were  saying  the  Litany  of  the  Saints.  Even  in  the 
courtyards  of  apartment  houses  and  business  premises  one 
frequently  sees  holy  statues.  On  the  staircase  of  the  building 
where  the  British  Consulate  General  is  situated  there  is  a 
large  and  beautiful  statue  of  Our  Lady,  with  freshly  gathered 
flowers  always  in  front  of  it. 

FIFTY  YEARS  OF  AMERICAN  INTERFERENCE 

Mexico  is  a thoroughly  Catholic  country,  and  it  would 
have  a good  and  honest  Catholic  Government  today  were 
it  not  for  the  continual  interference  of  the  United  States  dur- 
ing the  last  fifty  years  in  support  of  “Liberals”  and  anti- 
clericals like  Calles.  Freedom  would  come  gradually  as  it 
came  in  England,  which  was  under  a re-actionary  and  oligar- 
chical form  of  Goverment  throughout  the  whole  eighteenth 
century;  but  it  was  absurd  of  President  Wilson  to  talk  of 
giving  the  vote  to  Mexican  peons  while  making  no  effort  to 
enforce  in  the  Southern  States  of  his  own  country  the  Fif- 
teenth Amendment  to  the  Constitution,  which  lays  down  the 
law  that  “the  right  of  the  citizen  of  the  United  States  to  vote 
shall  not  be  denied  or  abridged  by  the  United  States,  or  by 
any  State,  on  account  of  race,  color,  or  previous  conditions 
of  servitude.” 

I shall  conclude  with  another  quotation,  this  time  from 
the  last  message  of  Theodore  Roosevelt.  It  is  as  follows: 

“Mexico  is  our  Balkan  Peninsula,  and  during  the  last 
five  years,  thanks  largely  to  Mr.  Wilson’s  able  assistance,  it 
has  been  reduced  to  a condition  as  hideous  as  that  of  the 
Balkan  Peninsula  under  the  Turkish  rule.  We  are  in  honor 
bound  to  remedy  this  wrong.” 


^Mexican  ^Headquarters 

Seen  and  ^Heard  cKo-vember  2^,  ig2y 

'''~-^UST  OFF  the  animated  Paseo  de  la  Reforma  in  Mexico 
City  stands  a huge  skeleton  of  rusty  iron  — a vast 
structure  which  might,  under  certain  circumstances, 
be  described  as  ghostly,  for  a belated  reveller,  seeing 
the  moon  shine  through  it,  might  feel  as  startled  as  the 
Ancient  Mariner  when  he  saw  the  moon  and  stars  shine 
through  the  Ship  of  the  Dead. 

It  is  the  framework  of  the  House  of  Congress,  begun 
by  Porfirio  Diaz  in  1910,  and  not  yet  finished,  never  appar- 
ently to  be  finished,  for  all  work  on  it  ceased  long  ago — 
ceased  as  soon  as  the  Constitutionalistas  grasped  the  reins  of 
Government,  though  one  would  have  expected,  on  the  con- 
trary, that,  since  these  gentry  profess  to  be  Parliamentarians 
of  the  most  extreme  and^  voluble  type,  their  advent  would 
hasten  its  completion.  But  instead  of  growing  up,  it  is 
literally  growing  down.  It  is  visibly  decreasing  in  size,  be- 
cause, with  the  permission  of  the  Government,  an  American 
company  which  has  entered  into  a contract  for  the  construc- 
tion of  certain  roads  is  helping  itself  freely  to  old  iron  from 
this  legislative  scrap-heap. 

IN  FAVOR  OF  OBREGON 

Of  the  temporary  Chamber  of  Deputies  I do  not  speak, 
as  it  is  in  every  way  beneath  contempt  architecturally  and 
otherwise.  After  the  coup  d’Etat  of  Calles  in  October  last, 
it  expelled,  at  the  bidding  of  the  Dictator,  all  deputies  who 
were  not  obedient  to  him.  Some  of  them  had  already  been 
murdered,  despite  their  legislative  immunity;  but  these  also 
were  expelled  by  name  as  if  they  were  alive.  It  now  offers 
to  increase  the  Presidential  term  to  six  years;  and  the  first 
President  to  benefit  by  this  generosity  will  be  Obregon,  who 
violates  the  Constitution  by  standing  for  re-election,  and  who 
is  also  ineligible  under  the  article  which  bans  those  who  have 
taken  part  in  revolutionary  movements. 

I prefer,  therefore,  to  speak  of  the  ghostly  Chamber  at 
the  end  of  the  Avenida  del  Palacio  Legislativo  and  forming 

15 


16 


AT  MEXICAN  HEADQUARTERS 


one  side  of  the  Plaza  de  la  Republica.  The  Plaza  de  la  Re- 
publica  is  worthy  of  the  unfinished  building  which  is  its 
principal  ornament,  being  an  abomination  of  desolation, 
grass-grown  and  deserted,  dead  as  a forum  in  Pompeii.  A 
workman  was  crossing  it  very  slowly  while  I paid  that  first 
visit  to  it  which  I am  now  going  to  describe,  and  his  steps 
echoed  hollowly  through  the  silent  square. 

This  square  really  reminded  me  of  Pompeii.  In 
Pompeii  you  are  shown  the  baker’s  shop  and  the  sculptor’s 
studio,  with  everything  left  just  as  they  were  when  the  lava 
and  the  ashes  came:  in  the  Plaza  de  la  Republica  you  are 
shown  the  stonemasons’  sheds,  the  carpenters’  benches,  the 
clerk’s  office,  and  the  foreman’s  room,  from  all  of  which  life 
fled  when  the  revolutionary  lava  rushed  down  from  the 
Sierra  Madre  and  petrified  them  into  eternal  immobility.  In 
the  Plaza  de  la  Republica  as  in  Pompeii  you  still  see  the  marks 
of  the  chisel  on  the  stone,  but  in  neither  place  do  you  see  the 
chisel:  in  Pompeii  it  rusted  away,  in  Mexico  it  was  stolen 
long  ago. 

THE  HOUSE  OF  MYSTERY 

At  the  further  entrance  to  the  Avenida  del  Palacio 
Legislativo,  just  at  the  point  where  that  dead  street  debouches 
from  the  lively  Plaza  de  la  Reforma,  stands  a gloomy  build- 
ing in  which,  however,  there  is  always  great  activity,  day  and 
night  — an  activity  which  is  in  striking  contrast  to  the 
sepulchral  stillness  that  broods  over  the  derelict  Palacio  itself. 
In  front  of  it  there  are  always  puffing  motor-cars,  groups  of 
gesticulating  men,  and  armed  sentries  walking  to  and  fro. 
After  six  o’clock  in  the  morning  there  is  even  a coffee  stall  on 
the  edge  of  the  pavement  a little  way  from  the  entrance;  and 
its  proprietor  does  a roaring  trade  with  armed  men  in  uni- 
form, who  eat  and  drink  with  the  avidity  of  people  who  have 
been  up  all  night.  It  was  about  six  o’clock  in  the  morning 
that  I first  saw  it,  and  I had  a cup  of  coffee  there  myself. 

This  house  of  mystery  has  a garden,  guarded  by  iron 
railings,  in  which  there  is  an  iron  gate;  and  through  this 
gate  automobiles  dash  in  and  out  every  few  minutes.  Even 
about  these  automobiles  there  is  something  mysterious.  They 
travel  at  quite  an  illegal  speed;  but  they  evidently  have  the 
right  of  way,  for  their  chauffeurs  blow  the  police  whistle 
which  gives  them  precedence  over  all  other  traffic.  The 


AT  MEXICAN  HEADQUARTERS 


17 


chauffeurs  exchange  rapid  passwords  with  the  sentries  before 
the  gates  fly  open.  Then  they  are  engulfed  in  the  gloom  of 
the  umbrageous  inner  courtyard,  and  the  gates  close  again 
with  an  iron  clang  which,  for  some  inexplicable  reason, 
shakes  my  very  soul  with  fear.  And  as  I look  on,  fascinated 
and  mystified,  the  gates  open  again  for  a large,  hearse-like 
motor-car  on  its  way  out.  Several  such  cars  pass  out  while 
I am  looking.  Grim  and  smooth  and  silent  and  painted 
black  all  over,  they  remind  me  horribly  of  the  vans,  freighted 
with  death,  that  used,  in  the  days  of  the  Terror,  to  issue  in 
the  early  morning  from  the  Lubyanka  at  Moscow.  This 
daily  exodus  impresses  itself  ineffaceably  on  my  mind  owing 
to  the  fact  that  it  was  from  behind  prison  bars  that  I saw 
them  leave. 

THE  NOTORIOUS  INSPECCION  GENERAL 

A sad  train  of  thought  is  started,  and  the  chill  in  my 
soul  deepens  as  I hear  the  clank  of  chains,  the  shooting  of 
bolts  and  bars.  Peering  into  the  first  garden,  I perceive,  under 
the  shadow  of  the  trees,  a collection  of  people,  varied  as  life 
itself.  Most  of  them  are  pfficers,  soldiers,  policemen  and  uni- 
formed officials;  but  there  are  also  women,  some  weeping 
hysterically  and  with  children  hanging  on  to  their  skirts, 
some  laughing  and  joking  with  the  men.  The  painted  lips 
and  cheeks  of  the  latter  women  leave  no  doubt  as  to  their 
profession.  Were  it  not  for  the  motor-cars,  I would  describe 
the  whole  scene  as  medieval.  The  odd  jumble  of  buildings 
beyond  and  around  the  patio  is  distinctly  medieval.  But,  lo! 
There  are  inscriptions  painted  on  them — Museo  de  Crim- 
inologia  (Museum  of  Criminology) , Escuela  Cientifica  de 
Policia  (Scientific  Police  School) . And,  through  the  barred 
windows  cadaverous  faces  peer  at  me.  Good  God!  it  is  all 
clear  to  me  now!  This  is  the  notorious  Inspeccion  General, 
the  General  Headquarters  of  the  ordinary  and  the  extraordi- 
nary police  of  the  whole  elaborate  organization  of  repression 
which  enables  the  Lenin  of  Mexico  to  rule.  This  is  the  head- 
quarters of  General  Roberto  Cruz,  the  Mexican  Dzerzhinsky! 
This  is  the  Lubyanka  of  Mexico! 

In  the  inner  court  I can  see  the  stone  wall,  pitted  with 
bullets,  against  which  so  many  victims  have  stood  during  the 
past  two  months.  Only  yesterday  four  men,  one  of  them  a 
priest,  were  executed  there  on  the  accusation  of  having  tried 


18 


AT  MEXICAN  HEADQUARTERS 


to  assassinate  General  Obregon,  but  there  was  no  public  trial. 
General  Roberto  Cruz  simply  gave  out  a statement  that  the 
men  had  confessed,  but  could  produce  no  documentary  proof 
of  his  assertion. 

Near  the  wall  at  one  point,  the  ground  is  trampled  and 
black  with  congealed  blood.  Further  up,  it  is  covered  with 
autumnal  leaves.  In  another  part  of  the  garden  is  a wooden 
stake,  commonly  used  by  the  soldier-executioners  for  prac- 
tice-firing, and  now  almost  shot  to  pieces. 

THE  RESULT  OF  “RECKLESS  ENTHUSIASM” 

Fragments  of  President  Wilson’s  speeches  about  Mexico 
come  back  at  this  moment  to  my  memory.  Incongruous? 
No,  for  it  was  President  Wilson  who  installed  the  Constitu- 
tionalist as  here: 

“There  is  one  thing  I have  got  a great  enthusiasm  about, 
I might  almost  sag  a reckless  enthusiasm,  and  that  is  human 
liberty/' 

God  help  us! 

My  eyes  seek  again  the  derelict  Legislature,  and  return 
to  the  prison  bars,  and  the  haggard  faces  behind  them.  This, 
then,  is  what  Mr.  Wilson’s  “reckless  enthusiasm”  has  brought 
Mexico  to.  This  is  the  result  of  his  verbose  confidence  in 
the  promises  of  the  “patriots,”  in  the  loud  asseverations  of 
the  democratic  revolutionaries! 

It  is  a pity  that  he  did  not  confine  his  destructive  ex- 
uberance to  the  enforcement  of  the  Fifteenth  Amendment  to 
the  American  Constitution,  and  insist  on  the  Southern  States 
letting  the  negroes  vote.  Charity  begins  at  home;  and  if  Mr. 
Wilson  had  allowed  his  “reckless  enthusiasm”  for  “human 
liberty”  to  run  wild  in  Mississippi  and  South  Carolina  instead 
of  Mexico,  where  he  had  no  business,  there  might  be  chaos 
today  north  of  the  Rio  Grande,  and  prosperous  tranquillity 
south  of  it. 

Here,  on  the  first  fioor  is  the  office  of  the  brutal  Roberto. 
Down  beneath  my  feet  are  the  terrible  subterranean  dungeons, 
ankle-deep  in  filth  and  water,  where  the  enemies  of  the  Dic- 
tator are  imprisoned  and  tortured. 

This,  then,  is  the  point  where  the  grand  march  of  the 
Revolution  stopped — at  a prison  gate!  The  “heroes,”  and 
the  Generals,  and  the  Constitutionalistas,  and  the  fiery  revolu- 
tionarios,  (all  of  them  with  hip-pocket  revolver) — they  all 


AT  MEXICAN  HEADQUARTERS 


19 


halted  here.  They  never  reached  the  Palacio  Legislative, 
part  of  which  is  now  used  as  a garage  for  the  Black  Marias 
and  the  funeral  autos  of  liberty. 

But,  hark!  there  is  a trampling  of  feet,  mixed  with  loud 
words  of  command  and  the  jingle  of  steel.  A crowd  of 
prisoners  is  approaching.  They  are  surrounded  by  police  or 
soldiers,  in  khaki  uniforms  and  with  rifles  and  bayonets. 
Even  at  a distance,  I can  see  that  this  crowd  is  curiously 
heterogenous.  When  it  comes  nearer,  I distinguish  men  and 
women,  boys  and  girls,  females  in  gaudy  attire,  and  ladies  in 
modest  mantillas.  Nearer  still,  and  I can  make  out,  with  a 
shock  of  astonishment,  obvious  convent  girls,  with  the  white 
veils  and  the  stainless  lilies  of  First  Communion,  only  that 
the  veils  are  rent,  and  the  flowers  torn,  and  the  young  eyes 
red  with  weeping,  and  the  smooth  cheeks  crimson  with 
shame.  And  no  wonder  there  is  shame,  for  alongside  these 
pure  girls,  and  even  handcuffed  to  them,  stagger  blasphemous 
and  drunken  harlots,  the  painted  dregs  of  the  Mexican 
brothels.  * 

THE  CRIME  (?)  OF  HEARING  MASS 
* 

Side  by  side  with  the  daughters  of  hidalgos,  with  the 
young  sons  of  the  Conquistadores,  walk  flagrantly  criminal 
types,  men  and  women  with  vice  and  degradation  stamped 
on  their  features.  From  my  experience  of  old  as  a police 
court  reporter  I should  say  that  they  belong  to  that  class  of 
criminal  whose  case  is  heard  behind  closed  doors,  for  the 
Mexican  criminal  generally  looks  his  part. 

But  how  on  earth  did  such  ill-assorted  people  manage 
to  come  together?  I turn  for  enlightenment  to  a civilian  by- 
stander, a middle-aged,  respectably-dressed  man,  whose  accent 
proclaims  him  to  be  a Spaniard;  and  he  courteously  explains. 
It  is  Sunday  morning;  and  General  Roberto  Cruz  makes  a 
practice  of  sending  out  his  myrmidons  early  every  Sunday 
morning  in  order  to  arrest  Catholics  who  go  to  Mass.  With- 
out warrants,  without  official  documents  of  any  kind,  and  in 
defiance  of  the  Constitution,  these  policemen  break  into 
private  houses  where  Mass  is  being  said  and  march  the  whole 
congregation  off  to  Headquarters — as  these  unfortunates  are 
being  marched  now. 

“But  apparently  the  police  also  break  into  brothels,” 
said  I,  glancing  at  the  painted  women.  “No,”  replied  the 


20 


AT  MEXICAN  HEADQUARTERS 


gentleman,  “they  never  do.  That  would  be  a violation  of 
the  Constitution.” 

He  smiled  faintly,  and  then  added;  “These  women  you 
are  looking  at  must  have  been  arrested  for  fighting  in  the 
streets,  or  they  were  probably  mixed  up  in  some  robbery  or 
murder.  There  is  now  a robbery  or  murder  every  night, 
and  on  Saturday  night  there  are  generally  quite  a number.” 

So  this  explains  it.  The  secret  Masses  are  always  said 
in  the  gray  of  the  morning  and  very  often  long  before  dawn, 
so  that  the  sleuth-hounds  of  Roberto  generally  manage  to 
kill  two  birds  with  one  stone;  they  arrest  the  girl  who  has 
risen  before  the  sun  in  order  to  hear  Mass,  and  at  the  same 
time  they  arrest  the  murderer  staggering  home  to  bed  after  a 
night  in  a gambling  den,  or  the  prostitute  trying  to  escape 
after  having  cut  her  lover’s  throat  or  stolen  his  money.  And 
as  they  march  them  all  together,  they  treat  them  exactly  alike. 

DIABOLIC  AND  ANGELIC 

The  bedraggled  procession  comes  closer.  In  it  there  are 
diabolical  faces  and  faces  which  are  angelic.  The  diabolical 
faces  are  brazen;  the  angelic  faces  are  crimson  with  shame. 
Not  all  the  women  are  young;  some  are  of  mature  age  and 
even  elderly.  Several  such  women  attract  my  attention  for 
two  reasons,  the  sweet  and  dignified  gravity  of  their  faces  as 
well  as  the  remarkably  bad  fit  of  their  dresses.  I learned  later 
that  they  were  nuns,  for  whom  secular  clothing  had  been 
hastily  found;  and  that  General  Cruz  takes  a diabolical  plea- 
sure in  immuring  these  ladies  with  prostitutes  and  criminals. 
The  Mexican  files  in  the  State  Department  at  Washington 
contain  complaints  under  this  head  from  Mr.  Sheffield, 
formerly  American  Ambassador  in  Mexico  City.  One  such 
complaint  is  to  the  effect  that  several  nuns  were  locked  in 
cattle-cars  with  criminals  and  sent  by  railway  to  Manzanillo 
enroute  to  the  terrible  Islas  Marias,  whereof  one  is  a Penal 
Colony  for  the  most  incorrigible  criminals,  the  Devil’s  Island 
of  the  Pacific. 

Some  members  of  the  procession  are  boys,  evidently  of 
pure  Castilian  descent,  with  deep-set  and  brilliant  eye, 
bronzed  check,  and  something  proud  and  sumptuous  in  the 
modeling  of  lip  and  chin.  Some  arc  old  men  with  finely- 
shaped  heads  and  the  singular  dignity  of  the  Spanish  grandee 
one  sees  depicted  on  the  canvas  of  Velasquez. 


AT  MEXICAN  HEADQUARTERS 


21 


But  in  the  procession  there  are  also  men  and  women  of 
pure  Indian  type,  mechanics  in  their  blue  overalls,  peons 
wrapt  in  their  panchos,  brown- faced  housemaids,  hardy  old 
market  women  with  smiles  on  their  lips  and  innumerable 
wrinkles  on  their  faces.  Their  presence  proves,  what  is 
proved  by  much  other  evidence,  that  Mexico  is  Catholic  to 
the  marrow  of  its  bones,  quite  as  Catholic  as  Belgium  or 
Bavaria,  more  Catholic  even  than  Ireland,  for  it  has  no  Ulster 
and  no  Belfast.  After  having  traversed  every  part  of  Mexico 
and  mixed  with  every  class  of  the  people,  I have  come  to  the 
conclusion  that  ninety  per  cent  of  the  people  are  opposed  to 
Calles. 


LARGELY  A MATTER  OF  GRAFT 

In  one  of  his  great  oratorical  outbursts  about  Mexico — 
it  was  at  Indianapolis  on  January  8,  1915 — President  Wil- 
son yelled:  “I  am  for  the  eighty  per  cent!”  meaning  thereby 
that  he  meant  to  give  the  vote  to  the  Mexican  peon.  The 
result  of  his  meddlesome  interference  was  that  all  Mexicans 
lost  their  votes,  and  that  the  country  is  now  ruled  dictatori- 
ally  by  two  men.  Ninety  per  cent  of  the  Mexican  people 
are  now  against  Calles,  but  the  American  President  and  the 
American  newspapers  and  the  party  leaders  seem  to  take  the 
matter  very  quietly. 

The  prisoners  have  now  entered  the  garden,  throughout 
which  the  harlots  diffuse  a powerful  odor  of  cheap  scent. 
The  more  respectable  members  of  the  party  are  bundled  un- 
ceremoniously into  the  Identification  Bureau,  where  they  are 
photographed,  and  have  their  finger-prints  taken.  Most  of 
the  poor  people  are  sent  away.  Is  it  because  there  is  some- 
thing, after  all,  in  the  President’s  boast  that  he  is  the  Friend 
of  the  Poor  and  the  Downtrodden?  No,  it  is  because  they 
have  no  money.  Yes,  this  “religious”  persecution  is  largely 
a matter  of  “graft”  or  financial  corruption.  Save  in  the  case 
of  Calles  alone,  any  fanaticism  that  you  see  is  not  religious 
fanaticism  but  financial  fanaticism.  With  Calles  it  is  differ- 
ent: of  no  religion  himself,  he  is  consumed  by  a passion  of 
hate  against  the  Catholic  Church  that  makes  him  grow  black 
in  the  face,  smite  the  table,  and  behave  generally  like  a mad- 
man every  time  that  it  is  mentioned.  The  explanation  may 
lie  far  back  in  the  history  of  his  Turkish  ancestors:  but,  so 
far,  nobody  has  discovered  it. 


22 


AT  MEXICAN  HEADQUARTERS 


Like  nearly  all  the  Presidents  of  Mexico,  Calles  is  dis- 
honest: but  no  amount  of  money  will  ever  bribe  him  to  let 
go  his  hold  of  a priest.  General  Roberto  Cruz  is  not  so 
scrupulous.  He  imposes  heavy  fines,  quite  illegally,  on  per- 
sons caught  attending  Mass.  Probably  he  sends  some  of  this 
money  to  the  Treasury,  but  it  is  reported  that  he  puts 
$25,000  a week  into  his  own  pocket,  and  has  been  doing  so 
since  the  persecution  commenced.  He  knows  that  his  victims 
belong  to  rich  families,  to  that  wealthy,  conservative  class 
which,  after  all,  built  up  Mexico  but  which  is  now  being 
rapidly  impoverished.  He  capitalizes  the  natural  anxiety  of 
parents  to  rescue  their  young  sons  and  daughters  from  the 
crowded  dungeons  and  their  foul,  contageous  diseases:  and 
his  calculations  are  generally  right,  for  he  succeeds  as  a rule 
in  getting  a fine  of  500  pesos  ($250)  for  the  release  of  each 
prisoner.  In  the  case  of  priests,  his  fixed  tariff  is  $500. 

BUSINESS  AT  A STANDSTILL 

But  while  Headquarters  is  thus  working  day  and  night, 
at  full  pressure,  business  is  languishing,  commercial  houses 
are  failing,  and  emigration  to  the  United  States  is  assuming 
alarming  proportions.  In  the  fashionable  shopping  center 
of  the  Capital  you  might  watch  the  shops  for  a whole  day 
without  seeing  a single  customer  cross  the  threshold:  but  you 
will  not  have  to  watch  Headquarters  long  before  you  see 
Catholic  prisoners  being  marched  in.  So  busy  are  the  police 
in  arresting  Catholics  and  ferreting  out  their  secret  printing 
presses,  that  they  are  neglecting  the  ordinary  criminal,  whose 
audacity  is  therefore  increasing  every  day.  Pickpockets 
swarm  to  such  an  extent  that  it  is  very  unsafe  to  carry  one's 
money  in  an  outside  pocket.  I,  myself,  was  once  robbed  of 
my  purse  while  buying  postage  stamps  at  the  General  Post 
Office:  and,  when  I complained,  I was  told  that  the  place  is 
full  of  pickpockets  who  are  having  a glorious  time,  thanks  to 
the  fact  that  the  police  are  always  absent  on  priest-hunts — 
which  pay  them  better. 

Sometimes  these  priest-hunts  bring  them  far  afield:  and, 
moreover,  prisoners,  accused  of  hearing  Mass,  are  brought 
every  day  by  railway  from  distant  States  to  Headquarters  at 
Mexico  City.  I take  the  following  paragraph  from  the  Ex- 
celsior, the  leading  newspaper  of  the  Federal  Capital.  It  is 


AT  MEXICAN  HEADQUARTERS 


23 


typical  of  similar  paragraphs  which  frequently  appear  in  the 
newspapers : 

Atlixco,  Puebla.  — Tonight  the  agents  of  the  In- 
spection General  of  Police  of  this  metropolis  arrested  Dr. 
Edward  M.  Texcucano  and  the  Rev.  Silverio  Aguilar, 
formerly  rector  of  the  parish  of  La  Natividad.  The  arrest  of 
both  these  gentlemen  was  effected  in  the  house  of  Dr.  T excu- 
cano  while  the  Rev.  Fr.  Aguilar  was  conducting  Catholic 
ceremonies  without  having  complied  with  the  conditions  laid 
down  in  Article  130  of  our  Magna  Charta. 

Both  prisoners  have  been  placed  at  the  disposition  of 
Senor  General  Don  Roberto  Cruz,  Inspector  General  of  Police 
in  Mexico  City;  and  they  will  therefore  be  transferred  to 
Mexico  City  today. 

A SYSTEM  OF  TERRORIZATION 

In  such  cases,  the  prisoners  will  be  released  after  having 
been  made  to  pay  large  sums  of  money  to  their  captors.  But 
it  is  not  only  the  police  who  are  making  money  in  this  way; 
the  army  is  enriching  itself  even  more  by  the  employment  of 
similar  methods.  Whilf  I was  traveling  in  Jalisco,  a land- 
owner  told  me  a curious  story  on  this  subject.  One  day  he 
discovered  that  two  of  his  peons  had  run  away  to  join  the 
insurgents  and  had  taken  with  them  two  of  his  horses.  He 
immediately  informed  the  local  police;  and,  to  make  things 
doubly  sure,  he  afterwards  called  personally  on  the  General 
who  was  in  charge  of  military  operations  against  the  rebels, 
and  told  him  what  had  happened. 

The  General  said  that  obviously  his  informant  was  not 
to  blame  for  the  rebels  getting  two  more  men  and  two  more 
horses;  so  that  my  friend  felt  convinced  that  no  harm  would 
befall  him.  He  was  mistaken,  however,  for  soon  afterwards 
he  was  arrested  on  the  charge  of  having  aided  the  insurgents, 
and  was  confined  in  a small  cell  adjacent  to  a cemetery,  the 
object  being  to  give  him  the  impression  that  he  was  about  to 
be  executed. 

This  system  of  terrorization,  I might  remark,  is  now 
universal  among  the  Mexican  soldiers,  who  generally  place 
their  victim  against  a wall  and  make  preparations  as  if  to 
shoot  him,  even  when  their  only  object  is  to  terrify  him  and 
make  him  hand  over  to  them  all  his  money.  My  friend  was 


24 


AT  MEXICAN  HEADQUARTERS 


finally  released  on  promising  to  pay  a large  sum  of  money  to 
the  General  responsible  for  his  detention. 

The  hills  around  the  Capital  are  now  so  infested  by 
bandits  that  it  is  dangerous  to  go  by  oneself  ten  miles  out  of 
the  city;  and  consequently  all  picnics  to  the  hills  have  been 
abandoned  by  the  young  people  of  the  British  and  American 
communities.  Ambassador  Sheffield  had  to  give  up  his  golf 
at  a country  club  on  the  Cuernavaca  road,  owing  to  the 
danger  from  bandits;  and  Ambassador  Dwight  W.  Morrow 
has  to  be  even  more  careful.  From  his  office  windows, 
General  Roberto  Cruz  can  see  hills  which  have  been  quite 
abandoned  to  the  bandits. 

TWO  PRESIDENTIAL  THEORIES 

This  is  only  one  aspect  of  the  present  condition  of 
affairs  in  Mexico;  and  it  is  not  an  aspect  on  which  Ambas- 
sador Morrow  is  touching  in  his  negotiations  with  President 
Calles,  those  negotiations  being  strictly  confined  to  American 
grievances  on  the  subject  of  the  agrarian  laws  and  the  laws 
affecting  petroleum.  The  Wilson  theory,  that  Washington 
would  only  permit  good  men  to  become  Latin  American 
Presidents,  has  been  followed  by  the  Coolidge  theory  that 
Mexico  can  do  whatever  it  likes  so  long  as  it  does  not  confis- 
cate American  property  and  pays  the  Committee  of  Bankers 
their  interest.  In  like  manner  the  American  newspapers  have 
swung  from  one  extreme  to  the  other;  it  cannot  he  because 
of  any  reaction  against  militarism  due  to  the  Great  War,  for 
in  1919,  the  entire  Press  of  America  clamored  for  "drastic 
measures”  in  order  to  suppress  this  "international  nuisance,” 
that  is,  Mexico.  Now  it  sternly  refuses  to  print  accounts  like 
the  above,  even  when  such  accounts  are  sent  by  its  own 
correspondents.  With  some  honorable  exceptions,  the 
American  newspapers  toady  to  Calles,  beslaver  him  with 
praise,  describe  him  as  Mexico’s  "man  of  iron,”  publish  inter- 
views with  him,  and  even  accept  articles  from  him. 

America’s  record  in  this  Mexican  business  has,  with  a 
few  bright  intervals,  been  consistently  bad.  We  see  today 
the  damage  which  her  professors,  preachers,  and  politicians 
have  wrought  in  China  and  the  bad  results  of  an  American 
education  on  Chinese  students;  and  from  that  we  can  esti- 
mate the  damage  that  America  must  have  done  for  over  fifty 
years  in  Mexico,  which  is  so  near,  and  which  has  also  been 


AT  MEXICAN  HEADQUARTERS 


25 


demoralized  by  oil  men,  concession  hunters,  kept  corre- 
spondents, paid  propagandists,  and  returned  Mexicans,  edu- 
cated in  the  United  States.  Infinite  harm  has  also  been  done 
by  American  Protestant  organizations,  which  spend  an 
enormous  amount  of  money  but  only  succeed  in  causing 
discord  and  disintegration. 

During  the  Carranza  rebellion,  many  Methodist  and 
Baptist  preachers  accepted  commissions  in  the  rebel  army, 
and  some  of  them  still  work  for  the  Comtitutionalistas,  and 
are  assisted  by  catechists,  Y.  M.  C.  A.  men,  and  various  kinds 
of  demented  “uplift”  workers  with  a very  strong  bias  toward 
Bolshevism.  In  June  last.  General  Amaro,  the  Secretary  of 
War,  published  in  Jalisco  a Communist  organ  called  El  Rojo 
(the  Red)  ; and,  judging  by  its  contents,  his  principal  con- 
tributor seemed  to  have  been  educated  in  some  American 
Evangelical  seminary.  All  this  work  simply  tends  to  the 
utter  demoralization  of  Mexico:  and,  if  Catholicism  is  up- 
rooted— as  is  not  at  all  improbable — its  place  will  certainly 
not  be  taken  by  Protestantism,  which  Calles  fears  far  more 
than  he  fears  Catholicism,  because  of  the  Americanization 
which  it  inevitably  entails.  But  for  the  moment,  he  uses 
Protestantism  in  his  fight  with  Rome:  and,  though  every 
Catholic  church  and  seminary  in  Mexico  is  closed,  all  the 
Protestant  churches  and  seminaries  are  open  and  functioning. 

THE  AMERICAN  ATTITUDE 

Many  Americans  dismiss  the  Mexican  question  with  an 
uncomplimentary  remark  about  “Dagoes”  who  are  unfit  to 
govern  themselves:  but  it  is  America  who  is  responsible  for 
the  present  chaos  in  Mexico.  America’s  whole  policy  for  the 
last  fifty  years  has  either  been  to  annex  Mexican  territory  or 
else  to  force  the  Mexicans  to  Americanize  themselves  and  their 
institutions.  The  United  States  has  permitted  every  kind  of 
crank  to  launch  attacks  from  the  north  side  of  the  border  on 
good  Conservative  administrations  in  Mexico:  but  has  always 
prevented  exiled  Conservatives  from  launching  similar  attacks 
on  Mexican  Governments  which  called  themselves  Liberal, 
but  which  were  chaotic,  corrupt,  and  hopeless. 

Juarez,  who  launched  Mexico  on  her  present  wrong 
course,  was  assisted  to  an  almost  incredible  extent  by  the 
Government  of  the  United  States  with  arms,  ammunition, 
cannon,  and  money:  at  one  time  the  whole  output  of  a great 


26 


AT  ‘MEXICAN  HEADQUARTERS 


arms  factory  in  the  United  States  was  poured  in  a steady 
stream  into  Mexico.  Without  this  assistance  he  would  have 
been  beaten  by  the  Conservative  Miramon,  with  the  result 
that  Mexico’s  development  would  have  been  normal.  There 
would  have  been  a period  of  oligarchical  rule  such  as  obtained 
in  England  throughout  all  the  eighteenth  century;  and,  after 
that,  a slow  but  sure  development  in  freedom.  A Dictator- 
ship did  come  later  with  Diaz;  but  it  was  overthrown  by  a 
rebellion  started  on  the  north  side  of  the  Rio  Grande  by 
Francisco  I.  Madero,  an  unbalanced  visionary  who  had  been 
educated  in  an  American  college — non-Catholic. 

THE  ENGLISH  POINT  OF  VIEW 

With  Huerta,  Mexico  got  back  on  the  rails  again,  for 
Huerta  was  a Conservative,  and  had  in  his  Cabinet  excep- 
tionally able  and  high-minded  men.  President  Wilson  would 
not  have  him.  He  had  set  his  heart  on  making  the  dreamy, 
socialistic,  and  anti-clerical  Carranza  President  of  Mexico; 
and  finally  he  gained  his  end  by  bombarding  Vera  Cruz, 
sending  General  Pershing  into  Mexico,  and  allowing  Car- 
ranza to  get  as  much  ammunition  as  he  could  carry  across  the 
frontier,  while  American  warships  seized,  in  the  harbor  of 
Vera  Cruz,  all  the  arms  Huerta  had  imported  from  Europe 
for  the  purpose  of  defending  his  Government  against  Car- 
ranza, Villa  and  other  brigands. 

While  pursuing  this  policy,  Wilson  continued  to  insist 
most  strenuously  that  he  would  not  interfere  in  Mexican 
affairs.  “It  is  none  of  my  business,  and  it  is  none  of  yours” 
he  said  in  his  Jackson  Day  address,  delivered  at  Indianapolis 
on  January  8,  1915.  From  the  English  point  of  view,  Wil- 
son was  not  “playing  the  game”;  but  because  Sir  Lionel 
Carden,  the  British  Minister  to  Mexico,  thought  so  and  said 
so.  President  Wilson  induced  the  British  Government  to  recall 
him. 

Finally,  Huerta  fell,  for  he  could  not  maintain  his  posi- 
tion in  face  of  President  Wilson's  opposition;  and  the  Con- 
stitutionalists have  been  in  power  ever  since.  Washington 
continues  to  support  them,  probably  because  of  a fear  that  a 
Conservative  regime  might  develop  into  a monarchy;  but 
such  development  is  quite  out  of  the  question,  and,  even  if  it 
were  possible,  no  monarchy  could  make  such  trouble  for 
Americans  and  for  the  American  Government  as  the  present 


AT  MEXICAN  HEADQUARTERS 


27 


Dictatorship  has  done.  Since  1914,  546  Americans  have 
been  murdered  in  Mexico,  and  470,000  acres  of  land  have 
been  taken  from  Americans  without  compensation.  Yet, 
when  General  de  la  Huerta  rebelled  against  Obregon  and 
Calles  at  the  end  of  1923,  President  Coolidge  saved  the 
Duumviri  by  selling  them  a large  supply  of  arms  and  ammu- 
nition, including  15,000  Enfield  rifles  and  five  million 
rounds  of  ammunition.  A year  ago  Calles  sent  those  arms  to 
Nicaraguan  insurgents  who  were  trying  to  overthrow  a 
Government  which  was  friendly  to  the  United  States,  and  to 
establish  one  which  was  unfriendly. 

There  may  still  be  optimists  who  believe  that  there  can 
never  again  be  oppression  or  injustice  in  the  world  because 
of  the  powerful  influences  watching  for  it,  in  order  to  expose 
and  crush  it. 

“First,  there  is  the  Press,”  these  optimists  will  say, 
“always  ready  to  expose  the  tyrant  and  the  wrong-doer, 
whether  he  be  in  Moscow,  in  Rome,  or  in  Rumania. 
Secondly,  there  is  Labor,  whose  powerful  voice  will  always 
be  raised  in  favor  of  the  oppressed,  whatever  be  his  race  or 
color.  Thirdly,  there  are  those  marvellous  philanthropic 
associations  which  spend  all  their  time  and  money  denounc- 
ing Mussolini,  pleading  for  the  recognition  of  Russia,  and 
even  looking  after  the  welfare  of  lost  cats.” 

SILENCE  OF  THE  PRESS 

My  study  of  the  Mexican  question  has  made  me  pro- 
foundly doubtful  of  these  great  influences.  When  a Con- 
servative Government  takes  vigorous  action  against  sub- 
versive elements,  they  will  all  be  on  the  alert,  and  on  the  side 
of  the  subversive  elements;  but  when  a Socialist  or  Com- 
munist or  Anti-Christian  Government  persecutes  its  Christian 
subjects,  they  will  maintain  Sphynx-like  silence.  Even  in 
Conservative  papers  there  was  no  outcry  against  the  atroci- 
ties of  Calles  like  that  raised  in  the  Labor  papers  against 
Mussolini  and  in  favor  of  Sacco  and  Vanzetti.  The  greatest 
newspaper  in  New  York  is  run  on  the  principle,  “No 
crusade!”  Owing  to  its  adherence  to  this  principle  it  man- 
ages to  keep  a correspondent  in  Moscow,  another  in  Rome, 
and  a third  in  Mexico  City.  The  Moscow  correspondent 
sends  out  large  chunks  of  Red  propaganda.  The  Rome  cor- 
respondent praises  Mussolini.  The  correspondent  in  Mexico 


28 


AT  MEXICAN  HEADQUARTERS 


City  flatters  Calks.  But  they  all  “get  the  news  across.” 
They  all  “deliver  the  goods.” 

As  for  the  American  Federation  of  Labor,  despite  the 
fact  that  it  contains  a strong  Catholic  element,  and  that  two 
of  its  vice-presidents  are  Catholics  of  Irish  descent,  it  has  not 
only  failed  to  protest  against  any  of  the  murders  Calks  has 
committed,  but  it  has  supported  him,  championed  him,  hailed 
him  as  the  Man  of  the  People,  a Friend  of  Labor,  a Great 
Proletarian.  The  fifty  Humane  and  Philanthropic  associa- 
tions of  the  United  States  are  the  worst  of  all;  they  have 
vigorously  taken  the  side  of  Calks,  and  are  busily  distributing 
his  propaganda. 


A N^^^ONAL  Sj>  CATn'^lC 

Monthly  magazine 


IS 


^<HE  Sign  was  founded  August,  1921.  It 
owned,  edited  and  published  by  the  Passionist 
Fathers. 

^<HE  Sign  has  no  connection  with  any  profes- 
Vi-'  sional  circulation  agency.  Its  subscriptions  are 
obtained  through  personal  announcements  made  in 
the  pulpits  of  Catholic  churches.  It  is  sold  on  its 
merits  and  gives  no  premiums. 

j^HE  Sign  reaches  gll  the  members  of  the  Ameri- 
can  Catholic  Hierarchy,  a large  number  of 
Catholic  priests  and  Catholic  institutions. 

^<HE  Sign  carries  many  splendid  articles  in  Eco- 
nomics.  Sociology,  Biography,  Devotion,  Cur- 
rent Events,  and  Fiction.  It  is  the  Official  Organ 
of  the  Passionist  Missions  in  China. 

SUBSCRIPTION  PRICES: 

$2.00  for  one  year. 

5.00  for  three  years. 

50.00  for  life  (including  perpetual  membership 
in  the  Passionist  Chinese  Mission  Society) . 

Sample  copies  on  request. 

Address; — Subscription  Department, 

THE  SIGN, 

Union  City,  N.  J. 


For  the  Truth  about  Mexico, 

Read  this  Pamphlet! 


^\HE  PRESENT  Mexican  Government  under  the  leader- 
ship  of  President  Calles  is  apparently  friendly  to 
the  United  States.  In  reality  it  is  violently  anti-Ameri- 
can. Since  1914,  546  American  citizens  have  been 
murdered  in  Mexico  and  470,000  acres  of  land  have 
been  taken  from  Americans  without  compensation. 


'I^OSING  AS  Liberals  who  are  whole-heartedly  for 
progress  and  the  welfare  of  the  nation,  the  Mexican 
Government  is  savagely  robbing  millions  of  people  of 
their  inherent  natural  rights. 


>1<HILE  pretending  to  guarantee  freedom  of  worship 
and  liberty  of  conscience,  the  Mexican  Government 
is  carrying  on  a determined  war  against  God — a war, 
that  is  not  only  openly  anti-Catholic,  but  secretly  anti- 
Protestant  and  anti-Christian. 


For  the  Sake  of  Justice  and 

Decency,  Please  Spread  It! 


